On the way to the Capital of Culture

Created from salt, made rich by salt and with salt we are heading into the future:

CULTURE IS THE NEW SALT.

The Salzkammergut offers a high density of exciting stories, places and people and is embedded in an impressive landscape. Characterized by the elements of salt, water and wood, a multi-layered region emerged here in which the history of salt mining began in Hallstatt 7,000 years ago. The salt trade has nourished, enriched and internationally linked the region, it has attracted the wealthy and powerful to the country, with the summer resorts the Salzkammergut has become a place of longing, and the historic cultural landscape in the inner Salzkammergut is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

With its grown compactness, shielded by mountains, lakes and rivers, the Salzkammergut is exemplary for many other regions of the world. The globally observable gradient from the industrialized north to the south, which is used for tourism and agriculture, is combined here in a vivid density and serves both as a prime example and as a laboratory for meeting the increasing political, cultural, economic and ecological challenges in Europe and the world

program lines
In its 4 program lines, the European Capital of Culture deals with important topics of our region, Europe and the world, sets new impulses for the future, brings the diversity of historically rooted and contemporary art and culture to the fore and networks the region internationally.

POWER AND TRADITION
An open and active culture of remembrance without blinders is a necessity in order to draw lessons from the past for a careful and forward-looking approach to our present and future.
A search for clues in our region uncovers their origin stories and global connections at the same time.
Historically, the working-class culture achieved its first social demands and led significantly to a safeguarding of working life. Subsequently, the imperial court, the summer visitors, Jewish life and its disappearance through National Socialism, industry and tourism shaped the cultural landscape.

CULTURE IN FLOW
The need for a clear cultural identity seems understandable in a world that is globally interdependent.
It is the humus on which societies build and develop.
Culture and thus cultural identity never stand still. CULTURE IN FLOW allows renewal and makes a region and its society strong and sustainable.
She recognizes diversity as a power to learn from one another and grow in the process.

SHARING SALZKAMMERGUT – The Art of Travelling
She explores the diverse challenges, but also the opportunities for a high-quality further development of tourism and pursues the question of how the alpine region can be made attractive outside of tourism, even outside of the summer and winter months. How can an alpine region, whose landscape needs to be preserved and which should become a year-round tourist destination, prepare for the future?

GLOBALOKAL – BUILDING THE NEW
Designing the rural Alpine region in such a way that the usual north-south divide is balanced and complemented, enriching the labor market with creative potential, counteracting the emigration of young, well-educated people in order to enable life in the countryside and still be networked and work globally to be able to.
This means expanding mobility and digitality, developing strategies to enable agriculture as a livelihood again, combining spatial planning and development with sensible building culture, creating educational and artistic spaces, striving for sustainability in all fields in the Salzkammergut, but also beyond. In GLOBALOKAL – BUILDING THE NEW it is important to think about the world of tomorrow and to develop strategies for action, but also to address the tensions between the generations.

19^th of January – 30^th of November 2024
(Exact date according to request and availability)

Carefully selected ***/**** hotels or inns in the Salzkammergut / Salzburger Land / Capital of Culture region
(Hotel notification approx. 4 weeks before arrival for a fixed group)

Plus local tax: approx. €2,50 to €4,-- per person per day!
(Will be adjusted accordingly if the law changes).

also bookable:
Various evening and additional events according to the calendar of the Capital of Culture 2024
www.kulturkapital2024.at

The above prices are valid for a minimum of 20 participants.
The current version of the Salzkammergut Touristik GmbH terms and conditions apply!
Booking and billing via Salzkammergut Touristik.
All excursions are conducted with your own vehicle.
Every 21^st person in a double room is free.

Special TIP for JANUARY - 19. – 21.
A woman who knows what she wants!
With this play, the Jewish-Austrian composer Oscar Straus, one of the most successful operetta composers of the 1920s and 30s, created a masterpiece that embodies the operetta style of the Weimar Republic and with hits like "Why should a woman have no relationship" and "Every woman hat some longing« boldly and freshly overthrows previously valid role clichés

Special TIP for FEBRUARY
Ruben Zahra stages the narrative text by Susanne F. Wolf in his own composition and charismatic sound world and creates a magically poetic total work of art with the involvement of local children (choir and participants).

Special TIP for MARCH
Salt.Lake.City
Art exhibitions on the themes of salt, water and wood. The vital elements of salt and water have always been determining factors in the entire region. The central main exhibition of the Capital of Culture is therefore dedicated to these subject areas with objects, film and photo works as well as installations in connection with salt, wood and water.

Special TIP for APRIL
International Choir Competition Festival - 27. – 30.
In addition to the competitions, warm encounters between the choirs and the guests of the city of Bad Ischl take place in gala concerts, friendship concerts and church services.

Special TIP for May
ChurchSoundSpace
International Bruckner Competition for Organ and Festival of Improvisation. The program includes the finale of the Bruckner organ competition with four concerts in Bad Ischl, two lectures and another four concerts in the region.

Special TIP for JUNE - 21.
Fete de la musique – European music & culture day 2024
The Fête de la Musique takes place every year on June 21, the beginning of summer - in more than 540 cities worldwide, including over 300 cities in Europe. Music conquers public space - the Fête de la Musique, a day of street music, is making its way to the Salzkammergut

Special TIP for JULY - 6. – 31.
Lehár Festival Bad Ischl Ischl – Austria's largest operetta festival dedicated to the KH 2024
The Lehár Festival Bad Ischl is the largest and oldest operetta festival in Europe and spoils its guests every year with operetta performances by different composers.
It is characterized by diversity, pioneering for young artists and enlightening for scientific studies. Various productions have received numerous prestigious awards.

Special TIP for AUGUST - 1. – 31.
Lehárfestival Bad Ischl – Austria's largest operetta festival dedicated to the KH 2024
Eisklang - Dachstein giant ice caves
The concert series "Eisklang" offers a unique acoustic experience in the Parsifaldom of the giant ice cave on selected summer evenings. For the program, which is primarily designed for tourism, two composition commissions for contemporary music are supported by the European Capital of Culture 2024

Special TIP for SEPTEMBER
New Salt Festival
Concerts, club nights, open formats Festival 2024
New Salt Festival deals with electronic music and contemporary composition with a focus on cross-genre and multimedia projects. The events will already take place in 2023, with the New Salt Festival finally culminating in a multi-day festival in autumn 2024.

Salzkammer(sc)hall
several places and areas in the Salzkammergut: town centres, settlements, places "in nature", partly remote locations, railway lines
A four-part sound land art project with choirs, music bands, pillory gunners and bells from the Salzkammergut region. Four resounding pillars of the "Salzkammergut culture" - which are also its clichés at the same time, are updated in a new way and pointing to the future using the familiar.

Special TIP for OCTOBER
Sons of Sissy
Experimental performance that humorously breaks with traditional male role models in the interplay of alpine live music, group dances and ritualistic practices. The production will be shown as part of the Salzkammergut Fringe Festival.

song/song
Stories are told in the event center in Altaussee – with music by countertenor Alois Mühlbacher and the ensemble Ars Antiqua Austria, Attwenger and musicians from Mali, oral explanations by author Michael Köhlmeier.

Special TIP for NOVEMBER
Closing event European Capital of Culture – Bad Ischl – Salzkammergut

Subject to change!